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Mob boss crony denies singing to Americans By Amir Zohar Tags: Yoram Elal, Yitzhak Abergil On Monday, an Israeli believed to be one of the key figures in the Abergil crime organization denied having either joined the FBI's witness protection program or of testifying against an alleged Israeli kingpin. Yoram Elal, who has been in Brazil for the past two years, told his brother on the phone from Brazil on Monday, "No witness program, no way, I have nothing to testify about." "I see it all on the Internet and television, but I'm calm and live my life quietly and not underground," he was cited by his brother, Nissim, as having told him. Advertisement Elal spent his first 18 months in Brazil in prison. He had left Israel in December 2003, four hours after the attempted murder of another crime figure, Ze'ev Rozenstein, on Tel Aviv's Yehuda Halevy street. Yitzhak Abergil's attorney, Sharon Nahari, who represented Elal in Brazil when the U.S. asked for his extradition last year, said "Elal's extradition request was based on the same apparent evidence now cited against Abergil, especially the testimonies that Gabi Ben Harush gave in Los Angeles." Nahari was commenting on reports that Elal had agreed to join the FBI's witness protection program and had incriminated Abergil. In the U.S., Elal is suspected by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency of joining two other Abergil men, Ben Harush and Hai Vaknin, in setting up a crime ring in 2003. That organization is alleged to have distributed millions of ecstasy pills and to have laundered millions of dollars obtained from Etti Alon's embezzlemen t of the Trade Bank, and from the extortion of business people. Vaknin and Ben Harush were arrested, but Elal managed to flee to Uruguay. However, he was arrested there six months later. In October 2005, Elal's brother Nissim managed to spring him from prison, with the help of local people who impersonated officials from Uruguay's justice ministry. "I paid and got him out of prison," Nissim said. "We both know what needs to be done in these situations." Elal settled down in Brazil but was arrested about two years ago in Rio de Janeiro. "For a year and a half we fought against American and Uruguayan extradition requests," Nahari said, who added that the conditions in the Brazilian prison were especially harsh. "Only by appealing to a 12-judge panel in the supreme court did we manage, with the help of a local lawyer, to release him. "The Americans presented evidence they had allegedly gathered against Vaknin and Ben Harush, but the court decided that the evidence was not corroborated and decided to let him go. I hope the Israeli court exercises the same judgement with Abergil," he said. Nissim Elal said that when his brother was arrested, the Americans pleaded with him to enter the witness protection program, but had since eased up on the pressure. "Yoram is not a criminal, he's only being associated to this story because he's a friend of Itzik Abergil," he said. "Apart from Ben Harush, there's another Jerusalem criminal type who's been opening his mouth there, Yehuda (Jodi) Ben Atar, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail and has recently entered the witness protection program," he said. "This Jodi, who was king of the underworld in Los Angeles, began to talk, and incriminated a lot of people." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Swing Jews Jewish Democrats go hi-tech to fight anti-Obama 'hate mail.' Where's Rose? Missing girl's mother allegedly told husband to 'get rid of her.'   1.   "My way" ? 10:11  |  Clickfool 26/08/08   2.   Yeah, Bravo the new generations... 14:56  |  Ben Afflalo 26/08/08

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